As much as I hate to say it, I think winter’s finally here to stay. How do I know this? Well, the snow out in my driveway which is actually going to require mechanical removal would be my first hint, along with a consistent nagging by my wet socks after wadding through it to back up the theory! Yes, tomorrow’s going to be just a freakin’ blast… 😡

There does come a bit of goodness from all of this, though, as with the coming of winter also inevitably comes my favorite holiday of all – Christmas!!! Even though the house will be lacking the aesthetic qualities (i.e. lights) due to the moving thing this year, I’ve still got plenty of columns and other goodies to brighten your holiday, starting with this little piece below. My original intention, actually, was for this to be a Thanksgiving piece, but things got a little out of control – what can you do?

I also wanted to do a little plugging in this post, not for me actually, even though I could stand to see a bit of cash out of it if the proper response is drummed up! You see, my Dad has been building wooden boats, kayaks to be precise, for the last several years, both as gifts for friends and family and for himself. Well, he’s decided that this was as good a time as any to make an attempt at selling the things professional, so I offered to pitch in a hand and help get a website up and running for the cause. I did finally finish the project a week or two ago, so I would like to take this opportunity to shout out a little ad for the site in hopes that maybe someone out there will be interested in buying a boat of their own. I do think that some clarification is necessary – these aren’t your average run-of-the-mill, mass-produced kayaks. Each one is hand-crafted to the users exact specifications and the pieces are a real beauty before they even touch the water. I won’t lie to you – they ain’t cheap, either – but if you’ve got the money to spend and are looking for a great craft, I’d suggest that you take a look:

One last note before I go do something productive! I got a little bored this weekend and decided to look a little further into cataloging my DVD collection. I’d considered actually putting together the entire program myself, as some practice with databases and whatnot, but after coming across this program, it hardly seemed to be worth the effort – the old phrase, “No sense in re-inventing the wheel…” came to mind! The software is called DVD Profiler and it allows both an online, web-based interface and a stand-alone client for your home computer, and that alone was enough to sell me…but wait, there’s more! Behind the software sits a user-built database (much like the IMDB, although I couldn’t say whether or not this uses the same information), containing every little detail you could ever imagine about the DVD, from special features to plot summaries to a complete catalog of the actors and actresses involved – it’s really an impressive setup. You can enter your discs either by title, UPC (I did this for most of mine), or you can even insert each disc and let the auto-detect find them if you have a DVD drive in your computer, so entry is pretty painless. They even give you the opportunity to create a wish list, which I thought was a great idea for the upcoming holidays and even though you won’t find me doing the same at Amazon.com or anywhere else, I did manage to throw a few requests up here! I should also add that the software allows you to navigate your own wishlist and make purchases from the major retailers, all while comparing prices within, so that was a neat little extra, too. Summing it up, if you’re a home theater geek like I am and are looking for a great program to help you keep track of it all, along with a method to point the relatives in the right direction when doing your shopping, I’d certainly recommend that you give DVD Profiler a try…

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Scott Sevener is writer who specializes in humor and satire, and is exceptionally modest in the fact that he's probably the funniest person you'll ever come across in your entire life.

Definitely at least in the top three, anyways...

He doesn't always write in the 3rd person like this, but when he does he'd probably want you to know that as well as buying all of his books, also sharing links to the columns you read online with your friends and family is a great way to show your support and really helps!

In addition to all of the fine sites that you see promoted here around ScottSevener.com, other places where you can find his impeccable wit and trademark hilarity include the following...